As computer networks develop into a means of structuring, sharing and transferring information, information systems, such as electronic mail (email), have facilitated communication and information management for information sharing and transfer. Users on a computer network have traditionally used emails to communicate private messages with each other. However, email has rapidly evolved into a new standard communication medium moving beyond the memo framework to becoming a universal tool for conducting business. The capability to send any type of data attached as a file to an email is being increasingly used, not only for dissemination of information, but also as a means of real world collaboration and email attachments have become a vital component of an organization's work-flow.
Typically, organizations use a network of computers with some operating as email servers functioning as applications responsible for receiving, transmitting, routing and archiving email. Users of such a corporate network typically have client versions of the email software for creating, sending, receiving and organizing emails installed on personal workstations. The size of email attachments used for collaboration varies considerably depending on the application but the trend is moving towards larger files, especially for rich media applications involving audio and video.
Consequently, the volume of data passing through the email systems has increased beyond the capabilities of the existing infrastructure of many corporations, resulting in strained bandwidth networks, unmanageable growth in distributed storage requirements and adverse impact on unrelated mission critical communications.
Other issues that arise include excessive data loss or latency, excessive time for downloading large files, reliance on low technology alternatives to recover from failures and lack of effective and accurate reporting capabilities. These problems are further compounded by the strained IT resources, need to extend life of existing infrastructure, desire to increase the quality of other network services, demand for an inherent fail-over mechanism for critical systems, requirement of accurate data for forecasting and planning infrastructure growth and tracking of resource utilization by business unit (i.e. department, partner, client and geographic region or specific location)
Conventional email file attachment delivery methods and systems are not efficient and difficult to manage, causing staff to lose precious productivity time transferring large files to compact disc (CD), printing hardcopy of the large files for sending by traditional courier, or using other ad-hoc manual tools such as the public File Transfer Protocol (FTP) servers and file-sharing servers which are potentially vulnerable and do not address the issue of lifecycle management of these often sensitive files.
The negative impact on operational productivity and the related infrastructure has generated a compelling need for a solution that meets both business and technical requirements. One of the most important decision-making criteria from the perspective of an enterprise is to provide a solution that supports the tools employees are most familiar with, so as to maintain the existing business process and workflow.